


A Strange Little Family

by JerseyGirl



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angels, Children, Daughters, Family, First Kiss, Friendship/Love, Ghosts, Happy, Hugs, Laughter, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Male Friendship, Supernatural Elements, Tickling, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-20
Updated: 2012-06-20
Packaged: 2017-11-08 04:30:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/439164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JerseyGirl/pseuds/JerseyGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Danny starts crashing on Steve's couch, he sees the ghost of a little girl every night. Then comes his first weekend there with Grace, and things go from awesome to strange when the ghost girl tells them why she's there…</p>
<p>Spoilers for Season 2, Episode 7 "Ka Iwi Kapu" and occurs directly after Season 2, Episode 9 "Ike Maka."</p>
<p>Rated "Mature" for language and mild (but a bit graphic) sexual content.</p>
<p>One-shot, complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Strange Little Family

Danny blinks the sleep out of his eyes. It takes a few seconds for his brain to come online enough to know he's not alone.

Again.

He flinches and sits bolt upright, eyes going wide. She's standing there before him, a little girl who can't be more than eight or nine, very close to Grace's age. She's Caucasian, with large hazel eyes, long blonde hair and a heart-shaped mouth.

Her long, white nightgown flutters in a breeze Danny doesn't feel, yet it brings a chill to him anyway, goosebumps rising over every inch of his body. His hair stands on end and his breath catches in his throat.

It's not the first time he's seen her.

His first week at Steve's, he'd barely gotten any sleep at all because of her. That first night he spent scouring the entire house, even waking Steve up to ask if he had any neighbors with little girls because he was so certain she was real.

Steve had helped him look high and low for evidence that the child had been there. When none was found, they both chalked it up to a very realistic dream and went back to bed.

The second night she'd come again.

The third, Danny had tried to touch her and found as she looked up at him with soulful eyes, that his hand went right through her.

He hadn't known what to do, and wasn't able to get the words out of his mouth to even mention it to Steve.

This is the end of the second week, a Friday night-into-Saturday morning, and Danny's tried every tactic he knows to block out this recurring dream or nightmare or whatever the hell it is. That's why he's had the TV on throughout the night, something that very nearly blew him and McGarrett apart for all the stupidity of allowing something that mundane to end a partnership and friendship.

It would've been the perfect moment for Danny to tell Steve _why_ he insisted upon sleeping with the TV on. But instead of giving his friend the truth, he'd made up that lame lie about not liking the sound of ocean waves, because to admit he was seeing a ghost every night sounded even _worse_ in his own mind.

Then they'd gotten the case, and Danny had blissfully been too exhausted to awaken on those nights, whether or not the ghost visited.

But the case ends, as they all do, and when Danny settles onto the couch that night, covers pulled up to his neck, he has on the headphones Steve had given him. He can't help but chuckle over the black bow on top of the case, wondering if that is some sort of dig from Steve or if the store he'd bought them at had used the color, or if there is some deeper meaning behind it.

So much can be read into something so simple. He'd found that out the hard way growing up when his mother psychoanalyzed every gift received from every relative, from the way it was packaged or wrapped and decorated all the way to what the gift actually was.

It had made Christmas more a time of dread and tedium than joy.

Tonight Danny is the good kind of tired. Case closed, paperwork completed, checked, corrected and submitted. Steve asleep upstairs, safe for the moment from various jackasses who always seem to want to take him down. Grace safe inside Step-Stan's mansion, and Danny will be picking her up in the morning.

So he needs his sleep tonight, to prepare for a day full of outings and fun and swimming and barbecues. Oh, yes. Steve has the _entire_ weekend planned out, like Danny crashing on his couch gives Steve _carte blanche_ to run every aspect of his life, including what he does with his daughter.

But Danny can't complain.

Well, not much. He _is_ Danny, after all.

Because Steve's plans sound like a blast, just the types of things Gracie will love. They start Saturday with a brunch here at Steve's, continue on to the zoo, and come home for an afternoon on the beach which, Danny is certain, will involve the strategic erection of a military-grade sand castle and more than a few minor heart attacks while Steve flips Grace around in the water like she's a giggling ragdoll.

And so it is that Detective Williams falls asleep on the couch, his world full of silence thanks to the headphones, and his mind full of images of fun and play and laughter and the happiness that comes from family.

Even if it is somewhat of a strange little family, at that.

And he doesn't wake to find the ghost that night.

* * *

The next day is just as fun as Steve had made it sound when he, excitedly and bouncing on the balls of his feet, had laid it out for Danny with military precision the day before. Their early brunch includes Steve on Scrambled Egg and Bacon Duty, Danny on Hash Brown and Orange Juice Patrol and Grace in charge of the Toaster Barracks, which include her troops of butter and Hawaiian-made jam. How Grace laughs and giggles as Steve treats her like Lieutenant Junior Grade Williams, calling her that every other sentence. He even goes and gets an older uniform hat he'd once worn before the newer hats had been released just after his graduation from Annapolis. Grace wears it with pride, and Danny takes way too many pictures of the happy little girl.

(But forbids her from actually entering the Navy upon graduation from high school, much to Steve's chagrin.)

Next is the Honolulu Zoo, where they have two new lion cubs, an African Wild Dog pup and at least three different types of bird eggs incubating and ready to hatch. Steve and Danny have one helluva time pulling Gracie away from the nursery; she is _determined_ to actually see the baby birds make their way out of the eggs. There is junk food and laughter and offers from Steve to allow himself to be handcuffed to the monkey cages, bringing about the first smile about anything related to his criminal brother that Danny has cracked in a long, long time.

(Also, he tells Steve he might take him up on that handcuff thing next time Steve decides he wants to run across rooftops.)

After the zoo, as per the flawless Steve Plan, it's back to Casa McGarrett, which Steve has renamed the McGarrett-Williams Base, much to Grace's delight and Danny's own version of Aneurism Face. Nobody's hungry after all the Zoo food, so into their board shorts and bikini they all change (to the backdrop of Steve asking, "Aw, Danno, you're not wearing a bikini, too?" which, of course, makes him have to sock his partner in the bicep…the result being that it hurts Danny's hand more than it does Steve, of _course_ it does).

Towels and a cooler of beer and flavored water for Gracie in hand, the three make their way out onto Steve's private beach where, before Danny can even get the towels laid out just-so (because yes, he _is_ that anal retentive, all right?), Steve's got Gracie in the water giving Danny about two coronary events per second as he whips her around his head, tosses her into the water, lets her shimmy up his body to sit on his shoulders and generally, basically, just _plays_.

Which, for Danny, is a sight to behold. Because his time with Steve is usually spent trying to solve cases, and running into warehouses full of armed criminals, and hunching over paperwork that, when spread end-to-end, is enough to circle the Equator twice. Sure, he's seen Steve relaxed, whether at a bar or restaurant with the team, or when Danny's popped over to his house to say hi. (And really, Danny thinks, the latter happens a lot these days for some reason.)

So in a rare display of the fact that he does indeed possess a grand amount of self-control, Danny just sits down in a beach chair, pops open a beer, digs his feet into the warm, soft sand and watches his partner and his daughter have a grand old time.

Until, of course, Steve decides to get Gracie on his side and goad Danny to join them. Half an hour later, Danny's waist-deep in the water, grumbling good-naturedly as Grace shows off how well she does the front crawl. As Steve gently and expertly helps her move correctly to maximize the amount of oxygen she inhales every time she turns her head. As he helps make her strokes smooth.

Danny, of course, knows all these things that Steve's teaching her, but there's something about it being Steve doing it that's got Danny done up in weird little knots. He finds himself staring at the light touch of Steve's fingertips to Grace's elbow when he positions her arm. Finds himself watching even more closely than Grace when Steve bends forward, puts his face in the water, and shows Grace the proper angle to inhale air and not water.

Finally Steve tells Danny to hold Grace in place by her belly while she floats face-down, so she can show him what she's learned with her head, her breathing and her arms. The praise that comes from Steve's lips makes Grace beam with pride. "Did you hear that, Danno?" she asks excitedly as Steve makes his way up onto the beach. "Uncle Steve does that for _real_ and _he_ said I was the best he's ever seen!"

"Well, that's because you are, Gracie, and he would know, wouldn't he?" Danny asks, then looks up to find Steve holding a beer in his hand and smiling at Danny like he's never smiled at him before. "Come on, Monkey, how about you float a bit with your old man before we see what kinds of snacks Steve's hiding in that kitchen of his?"

"Okay, Danno," Grace says, and immediately gets onto her back. Danny joins her, reaches out, finds her hand. Is gratified when she takes his and squeezes it. Holds it, rather than batting him away like he's silly. Something which she'll begin to do more and more as the days pass, he knows. "What are you thinking about?" she asks.

Danny sighs, waving his left hand a little and kicking his feet just a tiny bit to keep himself afloat. "About you getting too big to want to do this with me anymore."

"Danno, I'm never going to be too big to be your Monkey."

He looks across the calm water's surface at her and smiles, feels his heart swell like it always does when he looks at her. "I hope not. Danno loves you."

"I love you, too." Grace looks back up at the sky. "I love Uncle Steve, too."

Danny's eyes widen. "Well…that's good…Grace, that's…good."

And it is.

Weird, Danny thinks, but good.

"He's really nice to let us come over. I love his house, Danno, it's so pretty with all the flowers and he has his own _beach_ and everything!"

"Yes, he is really nice to let us come over, you're right about that."

"Careful, Danno, I might think you actually _like_ me," comes his partner's voice. And so this, of course, leads to the two of them wrestling mercilessly both in the water, where Gracie tries to help whichever one of them's winning at any given moment, and then spills up onto the beach, where Danny's crow of triumph over getting Steve in a headlock is quickly quashed by Steve's louder one when he manages to find a ticklish spot on Danny's ribcage _quite_ by accident and exploits it fully.

Which leads to both men ganging up on Grace and finding a good number of _her_ ticklish spots.

And the Williamses find out that Steve, sadly, had the 'ticklish' beat out of him in his SEAL days. Dammit.

Laughter-induced aching bellies and ribcages aside, they finish the day off with some barbecued fish and veggies out on the lanai as the sun dips low in the sky, and all in all Danny can't think of a better Grace Day since he was forced to move to Hawaii so he could keep having them.

It's something to consider when it's come at the home of your work partner, all because said work partner is letting you crash at his place since you don't have one of your own.

Later still, nearly an hour to go before Grace's bedtime, Danny comes down from having taken a shower to find Steve and his daughter side-by-side at the kitchen sink. Steve's drying the dishes that Gracie is carefully washing. Danny stops in the entryway, takes in the scene.

"How come you think Danno doesn't like you?" Grace is asking just as Danny crosses his arms over his chest just for somewhere to put them, and he wonders if Steve's going to regale his daughter with tales of shark cages and gunfire, or lie.

To Danny's great surprise, he does neither.

"I don't think that really, Grace," Steve says. "I was just teasing." Which is nice, Danny thinks, until Steve adds, "I happen to know that he actually _loves_ me" with a grin and wink in her direction.

Danny rolls his eyes and is about to begin loudly proclaiming why that is, in fact, _not_ the case at all when Grace asks, "Did he tell you that? He tells _me_ he loves me all the time, like he thinks I'm going to forget. Does he do that to you, too?"

Steve stops with a long grill spatula in one hand and a dish towel in the other, seeming to consider the question very seriously indeed. "He doesn't tell me with words, but I know anyway."

"Oh. You mean, like he hugs you a lot? I know that means he loves me."

"Well, no, not really. I don't think I've gotten more than a couple of Danno hugs."

"Well, then how do you know he loves you, if he doesn't tell you and he doesn't hug you?"

Funny how Danny's neck's starting to itch, and his eye's starting to twitch and he's suddenly hotter than the seventy-two degree breeze in from the windows should be making him. He wants to put an end to the conversation, but…he almost gasps out loud when he realizes…he doesn't. He _wants_ to know.

"He tells me other ways. Like always having my back on-the-job."

"Just because you're a policeman's partner doesn't mean the partner loves you," Grace states matter-of-factly.

"Okay, right, well, that's true, I guess. But he stays with me even though sometimes it's really dangerous, and sometimes I do things he really doesn't like."

"And you let him stay here with you, too, right?"

"That's right, until he can find his own place where it's safe to take _you_."

Grace rinses off a small bowl that Steve had used for a butter marinade, shuts off the tap and hands the bowl to Steve. "I don't get it. How come he doesn't just stay here forever?"

Steve looks down at her, and Danny thinks, really, he _should_ let them know he's there, but—

"Well, your dad's his own man, Gracie, and I'm _my_ own man. We like our own space, and you want to have your space with Danno when you're with him, don't you?"

She considers it, then looks up at him with those _big_ brown eyes that Danny knows would melt any Iceman's heart, and says, "I like it when we're here with you. It makes him happy, and I have a lot of fun."

This time as Steve's answering, he's not looking down at Grace. Instead, he's turned his head and is looking right at Danny. "You think he's happy here, huh?"

Grace nods as she picks up a second dish towel to dry her hands off. "He hasn't laughed this much since I was really little, Uncle Steve."

Danny feels his face on _fire_ , knows it's got to be fifty shades of red right now, and looks away.

"Well, I'm glad," Steve says, finishing with the bowl and putting it away. "Now, what do you usually do in your last hour before bedtime?"

"Depends," Grace shrugs, neatly hanging the towel on its towel bar alongside the one Steve's putting back. "Can I maybe just watch some TV with you and Danno?"

"Sure, let's go see what your dad would like to—oh, look, there he is! You can ask him yourself."

Steve's eyes meet Danny's, hold them as Grace runs across the room to give Danny a hug, releasing them only when Danny turns away and leads Grace to the living room.

Danny, who tells Grace she can watch whatever she wants to as long as it's within the limits of what she's allowed to as he settles himself onto 'his end' of the couch, as Grace grabs the remote and turns the TV and satellite box on…as Steve comes into the room with a beer for Danny, which he takes with a nod, refusing to meet Steve's eyes.

So the next hour finds them glued to a rerun of _Hannah Montana_ which Grace calls "old-school," but thinks Hannah's brother's pretty cute…and Danny's mortified to learn the guy playing said brother is _his_ age, for Christ's sake…and Danny steadfastly ignores the looks across the couch that Steve is shooting his way.

When Grace falls sideways, half-asleep at ten minutes to nine, her head lands on Steve's forearm. He grins when Danny looks and shit, Danny can't help but grin back because Grace is cute no matter what she's doing.

"Hey," Danny says, scooting across to the center cushion, "Gracie, baby, it's bedtime. You're falling asleep on Uncle Steve's arm."

"'S comfy," she mutters, and Steve chuckles.

"You want me to take you upstairs to my sister's old room?" he asks, bending low and speaking quietly.

She nods, yawns, says, "Wait, gotta get my night hug," and pushes herself off Steve to land in Danny's arms.

As he always does, Danny holds her tightly, squeezing his eyes shut, reveling in the simple feel of his girl's arms around him. He kisses her cheek as her arms wind more tightly around his neck and she buries her nose in his shoulder. He opens his eyes right when he says, "Danno loves you," and almost misses Gracie saying she loves him, too, when he realizes he's looking right at Steve when he says those words.

Steve swallows and Danny's gratified to see he's at least having the common decency to blush over it. "Go on, now, Monkey, time for bed," Danny says quietly. "Make sure you brush your teeth first."

"Okay," she sleepily replies, then turns and looks shyly up at Steve. "Can you both tuck me in?" she asks, and Steve's blush deepens and no, Danny does _not_ find that cute at _all_.

Except that he does, and recognizes it for what it is and thinks, _oh, shit_ as Steve gets up off the couch and says, "Okay by me if it's okay by Danno."

"Sure, anything you want, Gracie," Danny says, and the partners don't look at each other as they climb the stairs, as Danny helps Grace get her toothbrush and toothpaste, as Steve goes into Mary's old room to turn down the bed and make sure it's presentable for the first guest it's ever seen who wasn't a McGarrett.

Teeth are brushed and sparkling clean, and a little girl is tucked in by her father and then by her adopted uncle, and she gets a kiss on the forehead from both and is fast asleep before the men even make it out of the room.

Danny scratches the back of his neck. Steve mirrors the gesture. Finally, Steve says, gesturing toward his room, "I'm gonna shower."

"Yeah," Danny nods. "I'll just be down on my makeshift bed, if you, uh…" He scratches his nose. "Yeah."

_Eloquent, Williams. That oughtta win you Toastmaster of the Year._

His mind is racing as he slowly goes down the steps, enters the family room, grabs the two empty beer bottles from the coffee table and takes them out to the kitchen half-closet where Steve stores his recyclables. He turns his attention to the lanai door, which he closes and locks, then moves to the front of the house to ensure that door is locked. He sets the alarm, hoping his partner isn't planning on a late-night swim.

Then it's into the downstairs linen closet to grab the same sheets and blanket he's been using, and the pillows, and get them all laid out. The couch isn't bad, really. It's comfortable enough. And he's got his little girl upstairs, so all is right with the world. She's safe, where he can protect her, and that's all that matters.

Except, as he's unbuttoning his shirt and shorts, and unzipping his fly and toeing off his flip-flops (they're _not slippers_ , dammit!), he knows that for some reason, it's _not_.

He strips down to his underwear, the Spongebob boxers Gracie had gotten him for Christmas as a gag gift, and sits down on the couch. He runs a hand through his hair, looks up and his eyes widen.

Because there she is.

Not his daughter.

But the ghost of the little girl.

Danny swallows hard when she holds her hand out to him. He knows he can't touch her; he's tried already. But she puts her arm back down before he can attempt it again, and this time she has a smile on her face. "Family," she says, and Danny frowns. It's the first time she's ever spoken.

"Family?" he repeats.

She nods. "You can be a family now."

"I don't understand," Danny tells her.

"My two daddies and me were made dead," she says in little-girl-speak, "because I didn't have a mommy. But you can make it better. Make the house happy again."

And as Danny's trying to unravel her words, he hears the stairs creak, hears Steve enter the family room and says, "Can you see her?"

Steve stops. Looks around. "See _who_?"

"The little girl," Danny says, never taking his eyes from her, gesturing to where she's standing.

"He can't see me, only _you_ can," the girl states.

"Why?" Danny asks.

"Why what?" Steve says.

"Because you're like my daddy, and you have a little girl like me."

"Yes, I do. Her name is Grace. What's _your_ name?"

Steve moves closer, but Danny's eyes aren't leaving the ghost girl's. "Abby," she says. "Abigail Juniper Sanderson."

"Abigail Juniper Sanderson?" Danny repeats.

"What?" Steve breathes, and now he's standing right next to the couch.

Danny looks up, takes in the look on his partner's face. "You can see her?"

"No, no, what did you just say? Sanderson?"

Danny nods.

"The Sanderson house. Danny, _this_ is the Sanderson house."

Danny's eyes widen.

"My folks bought it cheap about four months after they moved to Hawaii. The real estate agent told them nobody wanted to buy it because of the three people that were murdered here."

Danny looks back at the girl. Up at Steve. "Wouldn't by any chance have been a little girl named Abby and two men, would it?"

Steve goes white as a sheet, thunks down hard on the couch next to Danny. "You can't be seeing a ghost."

"Oh, any more than I saw the woman with the hat and the little dog at that place I moved out of before I was even moved all the way in?" Danny asks, then turns his attention back to Abby. "Honey, I'm sorry you died like that."

"It's okay. I like being in Heaven with my daddies," she says. "But then somebody said you needed my help, so I came back for a little while."

"Who told you I needed your help?"

"Not just you. Him, too," Abby replies, nodding at Steve.

"Him, too?" Danny repeats, looking at Steve, whose eyes are wide and staring at him, flicking every now and then at the space in front of Danny where Abby's standing.

She's nodding when Danny looks back at her. "You're almost a real family, with your little girl who's like me," she says. "Almost. But it's not right yet."

"I don't understand," Danny says. "Honey, I don't understand what you want from us."

Abby looks between him and Steve a couple of times. "My daddy was Gabriel Sanderson, but everybody called him Gabe, and he wasn't ashamed to be with a man, even though it meant we all had to go to Heaven. So how come you are ashamed to be with a man? Don't you think your little girl will like having two daddies? And nobody will hurt you, because you're policemen!"

Danny swallows. Steve elbows him. "What'd she say?" he whispers.

Danny turns to look at Steve. "She said…I don't…I mean…" He turns back to Abby. "It's not like that with me and Steve, Abby. We're just partners, and we're best friends. But we're not…we're not a family like that, like the one you had."

Abby's partially transparent self stomps her foot on the floor – though it makes no sound – as tears fill her eyes. "But Uncle John _told_ me you needed help, and he was a policeman too, and he doesn't _lie_!"

"Uncle John?" Danny asks, and then the penny drops. "Holy _shit_ ," he breathes, looking at his partner again. "Abby," Danny says, "what's Uncle John's last name?"

"McGarrett," she replies. "It's his daddy."

Danny looks and sees that Abby is pointing at Steve. "Are you telling me that Steve's father told you we needed help, to be made into a family like the one you had, with two daddies and you?"

Steve makes a strangled sound, but Abby's face lights up, her tears are gone in a heartbeat and she nods up and down, up and down, up and down so fast and hard her body seems to shake. "Yes!" she beams, clapping her hands together – again, the movement not making a sound. "Yes, yes! That's right! Uncle John says it's the only way his Champ will ever be happy."

Danny flinches. "Oh, my God," he breathes, rubbing a hand down his face.

"If you do what your insides tell you is right," Abby says, still smiling but speaking much more softly, "then I won't have to come here anymore and I can go back to my daddies and Uncle John and play in the grass and the forest and in the ponds and lakes in Heaven."

"Danny, what is she _saying_?" Steve hisses from next to him, but Danny can't tear his eyes from long, blonde hair and a white nightie and big, hazel eyes.

"I don't know, Abby. I'm not sure what…I mean, I haven't really thought about this."

"But you want me to be able to be with _my_ family, right?"

Danny nods. "Of course I do."

Abby smiles. "I'm going to sleep now, so maybe next time I wake up you'll be a happy family and then I can say good-bye."

Just like that, Abby fades away. Within seconds, it's like she was never there.

Danny's quiet for a long, long time, staring at the place where Abby no longer is. Finally he scratches his cheek and turns to look at Steve, who appears either gobsmacked or possibly scared completely shitless, though he's never seen either look on his partner's face before, so he can't be sure.

"So, uh, I, uh…guess you kind of got the gist of that," Danny says.

"Danny, I'm sorry."

"For what?" Danny asks.

"I didn't believe that you'd seen a girl your first night here. I didn't believe you'd seen the woman with the hat and the dog at that apartment building, either."

Danny shrugs. "Well, it's not like it's a commonplace thing for a cop to tell another cop he's seeing ghosts."

"The Sanderson Murders, I looked into them once when I was about thirteen or fourteen," is how Steve responds, and Danny cocks his head as Steve finally levels his eyes at him. "Gabe Sanderson, William Gaunt and Gabe's daughter Abby lived here together for four years as a family before they were murdered in their sleep with shotguns."

" _Jesus_ ," Danny breathes. "Was there a motive?"

"Yeah. A message was painted on the little girl's bedroom wall that her father was living in sin with another man, and therefore she was corrupted and would be better off at Jesus's right hand than with two men violating the Lord's word."

"You got an eidetic memory or something?"

Steve swallows, looks away. "No," he whispers. "It just stuck with me."

Danny frowns. "Why would something like that stick with a fourteen-year old kid?" he asks.

"Be _cause_!" Steve responds in a whispered yell, whipping his head back around to look at Danny. "It changed me, Danny."

"How?"

Steve looks down at his hands folded in his lap. "I thought if I was growing up in a house where people were killed because they were gay, it meant something for me."

This time, it's not just a penny that drops. It's an entire _roll_ of them, seemingly all over Danny's entire being, if the hot pinpricks he's feeling from head to toe are any indication. "You're gay?" he asks.

Steve squares his shoulders, sets his jaw, looks Danny right in the eye. "I swing mostly that way, but I'm okay with women, too. I just…" Steve looks away again, bravado gone. "I don't tend to fall in _love_ with women, is all."

"Oh." Danny's eyes go wide. " _Oh_."

"Yeah. So there. Now you know, all because you can see ghosts." Steve gets to his feet, runs a hand through his hair. "Great."

"You, uh…how come you never told me?" Danny asks, also getting to his feet.

Steve's eyebrows hit his hairline. "DADT ring a bell?"

"It's over with, though."

"Well, it's never come up." Steve realizes what he's said and in the context he's said it in and blushes furiously.

"Okay, look: whatever your sexual proclivities are have nothing whatsoever to do with our partnership and our friendship, Steve. I mean that." And Danny does.

"I know, I never thought it would, I mean, it's just…not something I'm used to letting out there, for obvious reasons. Can you imagine the online sites? The queer Five-0 task force leader?"

Danny snorts, because it does sound kind of funny, but "Steven, I highly doubt when you're loaded for bear that any suspect or innocent civilian is going to start giving you shit about who you fuck."

Steve considers this. "You're probably right."

Danny grins.

Still…

"That doesn't, however, address what the ghost of Abby Sanderson told me about your dad." Steve goes from a slowly receding blush to pale white in the blink of an eye. "Steve, she…she said your dad called you 'Champ' to her."

Danny watches his partner carefully, but Steve's doing his best to imitate the bland expression you'd find on the side of a cardboard box. "Let me get this straight, just one more time," he says, and Danny nods, gesturing for him to continue. "You can see ghosts. So this little girl starts coming to you the first night you crash here." He indicates the couch. Danny nods. "Have you seen her since then until tonight?"

"Almost every fucking night," Danny admits.

"Jesus," Steve breathes, hand going through his hair twice. "So this girl ghost shows up tonight and tells you that the reason she's here, is because _my father_ told her that you and me and Grace had to be a family, so that's her mission now, and she won't stop appearing to you until we do that. Have I got it?"

"You've got it," Danny nods. "It's crazy, I know."

"Why, 'cause you don't like me?"

"Wh-?" Danny splutters. "What the—Steven, we're talking about _us_ here!"

"Yeah, that's right," Steve says, inching forward. "We _are_."

Danny's eyes get big as he looks up into Steve's, and feels his breath start coming faster as all the memories of their day together with Grace come crashing into his mind. The way Steve was so gentle with Grace in the water. How he made her laugh. How he tickled Danny, and then the two of them tickled Grace together.

How they laughed together at the zoo, how Steve imitated the elephants and giraffes and had Grace crying, she was laughing so hard. How Steve managed to make Danny laugh about the monkey cages and even before that, how Steve shared with Grace his old Naval uniform hat.

How Danny himself had thought, last night, as he'd drifted off to sleep, what a strange little family they were.

"Danny?"

Shaking himself out of his reverie, Danny looks up to find Steve was _right there_ standing in his space. "I guess we don't make a bad family, huh?"

A smile slowly spreads across Steve's face.

"But you…and I…I mean, we've never—"

Danny is cut off by Steve cupping the side of his face. "God, Danny, I…tell me now if you don't…if you can't…" Steve's eyes close, he breathes in deeply. He reopens his eyes to find Danny smiling, and Danny can tell it's thrown Steve a little. Not what he's expecting, maybe.

Well, _none_ of this is what Danny's expecting.

"I don't want you to think I'm doing this just to get rid of a ghost child," Steve says. "I really do love Grace. I think I fell in love with her when she fist-bumped me at the football game."

Danny swallows hard, the palm of Steve's hand feels like fire against his cheek. "And…what about her father?"

Steve's grin is equal parts goofy and beautiful. "I guess somewhere along the way," Steve says, his face moving closer…closer… "I fell in love with him, too."

And Danny can't move fast enough, breeching the gap between their mouths, fisting the front of Steve's shirt, hauling him as close as he can and still stay standing, and the kiss is like pure white joy, the realization that he _can_ have this, he _can_ have what he wants, what he didn't even _know_ he wanted. Even if he's a Jersey transplant, even if he's short and mouthy and can't even keep a roof over his goddamn head, he can still have happiness, and it's a truth that cuts into him so deeply it brings tears to his eyes because it _hurts_ and he wonders, can he really, truly be _happy_ like this, for real, with _Steve_?

Danny pulls out of the kiss so fast their lips making a loud smacking sound when they part. Steve's eyeing him like he might bolt at any second, and Danny's eyes are full of tears he's trying to blink back.

"Do you want this?" Steve asks, his hand moving to stroke Danny's cheekbone. Danny inhales a shaky breath, closes his eyes, leans into Steve's touch. Is rewarded by Steve's whole hand cupping the side of his face. "Tell me what you're thinking, Danny."

"I'm thinking," he says, and his voice is shaking as much as he is, "that I want to know something."

"Okay," Steve nods.

Danny looks him in the eye. "I want to know if I can stay."

It takes Steve a handful of seconds to get it, but when he does his smile is a bigger one than Danny's ever seen on him. Steve reels him in, wraps his arms around him, and Danny finds himself holding on to Steve just as tightly.

"God, yes, please stay. Grace was right. She was so right, Danny."

"I guess Abby was, too," Danny says into the fabric of Steve's shirt. "But Steve, I…I've never done the relationship thing with a guy."

"Me either," Steve says, pulling back just enough so Danny can see his face. "But we'll go slow, okay? You and me? I'm going to make it good for you, Danny. Christ, I wanted you the first time I stepped into that shithole apartment you had. Wanted to throw you on your pullout and rip that fucking tie off you."

And Danny feels himself having quite the response to _that_ little image south of the border, but before he can make the smart-ass remark that's on the tip of his tongue, he hears giggling behind him. He whips around, thinking, _oh, shit, Grace!_ But it's not Grace. It's "Abby."

"She's back?" Steve asks.

Danny nods.

Abby giggles again, smiles, and says, "See? Uncle John was right!"

"Yeah, Uncle John was right," Danny says, and feels Steve come up behind him and wrap his arms around him.

"Are you going to talk to him again?" Steve asks, and Danny has to smile, because Steve can't see her…but he believes.

Abby nods. "Of course!"

"She says of course she's going to see him," Danny interprets.

"Well, then, Abby, can you tell him that Steve says 'thank you' for me?"

Abby grins. "I will tell him right _now_!" she squeals. Then she takes a step forward as Danny tells Steve what she said. She looks up at Danny. "My daddies say they'll watch over you."

"And Grace?" Danny asks.

"No. That's _my_ job," Abby smiles. "Bye!"

"Bye," Danny waves. Steve says good-bye and waves, too, and then Danny watches as Abigail Juniper Sanderson seems to walk up an invisible flight of stairs before disappearing through the ceiling.

"You were right, what you told Grace," Danny says as he leans back into Steve's embrace.

"Which thing?" Steve asks, bringing his face forward so that he's cheek-to-cheek with Danny.

"When you said I love you."

Steve inhales sharply.

"I think, though, that I only just realized what kind of love we were talking about here, today, when you were in the water with Grace."

Steve squeezes Danny even tighter, kisses his cheek. "I love you, too, Danno."

And once again, Danny hears clapping hands and giggling, only _this_ time, he recognizes the voice. "About time, Danno," Grace says, moving forward to envelope her two favorite men in the whole world in a Gracie-sized bear hug.

"About—did you just—did she just—?" Danny says, trying to turn even as Steve refuses to let him have even an inch.

"She did," Steve says. "She's an awfully smart girl."

Grace beams up at them and Danny facepalms. "Why do I think I'm in for it with you two around?"

Steve and Grace fist-bump, both chuckling.

"Okay, young lady, _now_ is the time for all nine-year old girls to be in bed, so what are you doing here?" Danny asks, Steve finally releasing him.

"I had a dream, Danno."

"A nightmare?" Danny asks.

"No," Grace says, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "There was a girl who came to me and said she was my angel and would take care of me my whole life. I wanted to come tell you, and ask you if it was really a dream or if she was real."

"Did, uh," Danny says, getting down on one knee in front of his daughter, "did your angel have a name, Gracie?"

Grace nods. "She said her name was Abby."

Danny looks up at Steve, who's eyes have gone a little wet, and Danny feels that his own are a little bit that way, too. Then he looks back down at Grace. "Yeah, Monkey. I think Abby's real enough, and that she'll be a really good angel for you." He stands up, bends forward and kisses the top of Grace's head. "Now, do you want us to tuck you in again?"

"Naw," Grace says with a sleepy smile. "I'm good. You two keep on kissing."

So Danny turns beet red, sees that Steve's done the same, and they wait until Grace is up the stairs and they hear the bedroom door close behind her before turning to face each other.

"Well," Steve says, closing the gap between them, "Lieutenant JG Grace Williams has spoken, Detective."

"I guess she has. Shit, she knows about what's going on almost before I do these days."

Steve grins, leans in, and Danny meets him halfway. Their kisses are so chaste it's almost embarrassing to Danny, except that it's not because his little girl is upstairs and she really doesn't need to be hearing her father and her 'uncle' doing…oh, God, his face is turning red again, he's sure of it.

"What are you thinking?" Steve asks, half-laughing as he takes in Danny's skin color.

Danny narrows his eyes. "I'm thinking that maybe I won't need to be sleeping on this couch anymore," he says, gesturing to it. Steve's look of surprise is well worth his own flushed face. "But I'm also thinking that I'm not so sure I want my daughter hearing anything hinky."

"Hinky?"

"Hinky."

"Well, Danno, just because we've said we love each other doesn't mean we have to jump right into bed and have sex like those two chimps at the zoo were doing today."

And when Danny looks into Steve's eyes, they're fucking _smoldering_ and his own cock's getting so goddamn hard he just wants to jack off right then and there, the hell with it.

"Come on," Steve says, taking his hand. "Come upstairs with me. My bed's more comfortable than this couch."

"Steven, what did I just say about hinky?"

"Not hinky, Danno," Steve says as Danny somewhat reluctantly follows him to the staircase. "Hinky is Spongebob Squarepants on a thirty-five year old man's boxers."

Danny gives him a look that could melt steel, he thinks, but instead _it_ melts away when Steve runs his fingers through Danny's hair and says, "It's not hinky when it's love." Then he ducks his head, embarrassed, grinning that little grin that…yes, okay, Danny admits he definitely finds cute. "At least, my mom used to say something like that."

And Danny, well…he can't argue with that.

He can't argue with that at all.


End file.
